


i know the reason

by tawnyPort



Category: Free!, Homestuck
Genre: Bioluminescence, Crossover, F/M, Implied Relationships, M/M, Pale Romance | Moirallegiance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-09-15
Updated: 2013-09-15
Packaged: 2017-12-26 15:59:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/967858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tawnyPort/pseuds/tawnyPort
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rei watched as one strip of light reached out to touch Nagisa’s hair. A vague unpleasant heat stirred in his chest but was doused instantly when the hand shoved Nagisa under. “Nagisa!” He stood, shaky from sitting on the cold rock, and started forward, but suddenly there was another figure in front of him. A figure whose face was surrounded by the same kind of light, but this time dimly purple.</p>
<p>“She’s only playin wwith him an you’d do wwell to just leavve them to it. Sayin that, howwevver, you are an absolutely terrible moirail, lettin him get caught alone like that, an evven though wwe don’t knoww each other trust me wwhen I say comin from me that’s sayin a lot.”</p>
<p>or, I wanted swimmers and seadwellers and nobody else was going to do it so here we are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	i know the reason

Hazuki Nagisa was not a person to be trusted.

Rei listened as Nagisa hopped, again, from rock to slimy rock below, and sighed as, again, he yelped, lost his footing, and splashed into the narrow artery of water that had led them into this grotto in the first place. _It’ll be drier in there, and safer! Rei-chan can wait out the storm even without a tent!_ Rei, terrified and shaken, had believed him. He was attempting to do just that but the allure of things like safety and warmth was lost on Nagisa, who got bored after roughly ninety seconds of sitting still and had decided to tire himself out by bounding over the stones down below.

The first time he had fallen in, Rei had scrambled down from the ledge, terrified that the very person responsible for saving his life would now lose his own on Rei’s watch, but Nagisa surfaced again almost immediately and gulped in a huge breath. “Did Rei-chan change his mind about keeping me company?” Was that a nervous shake in Nagisa’s voice? No, it couldn’t be. Without his glasses he couldn’t read Nagisa’s face, but the very idea was preposterous, especially considering he was starting to think Nagisa was falling in on purpose just to draw him down.

“I heard you fall,” he replied with a huff, drawing on as much righteous indignation as it would take to hide his own frightened reaction. “I can’t see anything without my glasses and these goggles are no good in the dark so I needed to make sure you were all right.” He could see Nagisa treading water in front of him, the water lapping up against him as if he were just another rock.

“Ooooh, was Rei-chan worried?” Nagisa drifted forward and Rei felt hands around his calves. Goosebumps shot up all over his body and he yanked his legs away.

“Of course! You should be more careful, Nagisa. You know--” There was no beautiful way to end that sentence. Only around Nagisa did his mouth get so far ahead of his brain. “You know I wouldn’t be able to save you if anything happened.” He silently thanked the darkness for sparing him the fullness of Nagisa’s reaction. His own shame was burden enough.

“Then I just won’t let anything happen!” Nagisa pulled himself up out of the water on the rock beside Rei and stood up, shaking the water from his hair. “The butterfly can go back up to his perch.” 

Rei huffed out a snort and turned, retreating to a position farther from the water, but not as far up as he had been before. Nagisa was going to get them both killed.

Of course, Rei mused as he leaned his head against the chilly stone wall, he wasn’t really in much of a position to judge him for that, now was he?

He listened as Nagisa surfaced again but something sounded different this time. He was laughing, but there was another laugh as well. A feminine one but definitely not that of their manager. There was something strange about the tone of it. He turned his head and squinted in the direction of Nagisa’s laughter.

Yes, there was certainly someone else there. He could see a dark silhouette and a flare of garishly bright color under the water. He saw Nagisa raise his arm to point to where Rei was sitting and the other figure turned and--

He blinked and sat up more fully, hands reaching for glasses that weren’t even there before finally realizing and pulling his goggles on. Whoever, or _whatever_ , was down there in the water with Nagisa, her face, neck, and shoulders were dappled with warm pink spots of light. He saw another thin line of them arc up out of the water and sway back and forth. Was she waving to him? He weakly raised one hand and waved back, then all the lights were gone as, apparently satisfied, she turned to face Nagisa again.

Rei watched as one strip of light reached out to touch Nagisa’s hair. A vague unpleasant heat stirred in his chest but was doused instantly when the hand shoved Nagisa under. “Nagisa!” He stood, shaky from sitting on the cold rock, and started forward, but suddenly there was another figure in front of him. A figure whose face was surrounded by the same kind of light, but this time dimly purple.

“She’s only playin wwith him an you’d do wwell to just leavve them to it. Sayin that, howwevver, you are an absolutely terrible moirail, lettin him get caught alone like that, an evven though wwe don’t knoww each other trust me wwhen I say comin from me that’s sayin a lot.”

He stumbled backward and fell hard, the sharp pain in his tailbone telling him that yes, this was reality, and a creature--certainly a voice that warbling and alien couldn’t belong to a human--was warning him away from helping Nagisa. Rei looked past the creature’s legs toward the water and, surely enough, Nagisa had surfaced again, his laughter bouncing off the walls as he in turn tugged the pink-lit figure down. 

“There. Happy noww?” The creature turned and sat down next to him without so much as a by your leave but Rei could only turn his head to regard it in profile. The face looked vaguely human--it was even wearing glasses--but there was something about the skin… Even without his glasses he could tell the texture was just completely wrong. On top of that, it might have been a trick of the dimness of the cave, but it looked grey.

Of course, the bioluminescence on what he could now see were some kind of facial fins were really the only evidence he needed that whatever was sitting next to him, it wasn’t human.

“What are you?”

“I literally can’t think of a ruder wway for you to have put that. It’d be one thing if you wwere addressin a lowwblood but seein as wwe’re as close as wwe’re goin to get to castemates it wwouldn’t fuckin kill you to find a feww manners.” It--no, he--he sounded almost more hurt than legitimately offended.

“I’m sorry.” Rei heard a grunt in response. “That said, I have no idea what you’re talking about so I have no idea how to continue.”

“It’s your eyes.” The lights moved as the creature turned his head to look at Rei, then sighed dejectedly. “Forget it. I should’vve knowwn I’d get stuck wwith the incredulous one. Fef’s got a sense about stuff like that.”

“Stuff like what?”

“Like knowwin wwhich a you twwo wwould be wwillin to hang out wwith her for a little wwhile an wwhich a you wwould be starin at me like I’m goin to eat you. I’m not,” he continued, deadpan. “Human tastes terrible an you twwo in particular have no fat on you wwhatsoevver.”

“That’s not comforting!” Rei drew his knees up to his chest and glared at the creature seated casually next to him. “Maybe your friend has an easier time getting people to spend time with her because she doesn’t talk about eating them.”

“She’ll bring it up evventually. You humans are convvinced that evverything in the wworld wwants to get a piece a you and it’s just not like that.” The bitterness was creeping back into his voice, Rei noticed, and he was looking down at the water now, watching his friend--Fef--and Nagisa chase each other. Rei struggled to make their full forms out through the waves they were making but it was easy enough to track Nagisa’s ridiculous shorts and the lights of the other creature. They weren’t straying far, and when they surfaced there was always laughter and bits of conversation. She sounded like she was a match for Nagisa in enthusiasm.

If he’d let Nagisa pull him in, would that have been him splashing down there with him right now? Would they have been laughing together like that? Probably not, he thought, frowning. Even here where nobody would have seen him or judged him, he knew he wouldn’t have been able to let himself go like that. When Nagisa did it, it was natural. When he forced himself to rein his impulses in, to behave properly, Nagisa became a strange, awkward creature, but when left to his own devices he was--

No. Rei was not going to put that label on Nagisa of all people. Hazuki Nagisa, who chewed with his mouth open and made penguin noises at him in class and absolutely refused to brush his hair more than once a day, was not beautiful. 

“She’s beautiful.” Pulled from his reverie by the voice next to him, Rei observed that the angle of the lights around the creature’s face had changed. His fins must have drooped, and he was now curled into a posture not unlike Rei’s own, although it was difficult to really tell with the cloth draped around him. Had he really somehow come from underwater with a cape on?

“I guess so. I don’t really know the standards for beauty among your, uh, species, but she certainly moves with an appreciable grace and logic in the water.” It was vastly different from watching Haruka-senpai in the water--the way they moved was completely different and just reinforced the alien nature of these creatures to Rei--but at the same time there was something remarkably similar. They both moved like they were born to it.

“That wwasn’t a question, but trust me wwhen I tell you there ain’t another troll in the univverse like Fef.” The bitterness took on a wistful edge but even as he turned his head to try to get a look at the creature’s face, he shook himself and seemed to surface from that place. “Yours isn’t exactly hard on the eyes either. A little shrimpy but he’s holdin his owwn dowwn there.”

“Mine?” Rei felt the blush creep over his face but he dismissed the statement with a firm shake of his head. “He’s not mine.”

“Look, I may not be as vversed in the wways a your absurdly limited human romance as some people but I’m not completely blind here either. In fact I’m wwillin to wwager I can see better than you can, both literally an figurativvely, in a situation like this.” He freed one arm from under his cape and pointed to the water. Rei could see that the bioluminescence extended all the way to the backs of his hands. “You havven’t stopped starin dowwn there for more than a fraction of a minute since I sat dowwn here. Noww I may havve said I wwasn’t goin to eat you but that doesn’t mean you’re exactly a shinin example a safety right noww either but it’s like you don’t evven care. An wwhy’re you starin? Because your wwhatevver he is to you is dowwn there makin nice wwith somebody else an you wweren’t invvited.” The hand disappeared again and Rei took a deep breath.

“Just because you wish you were down there interfering between Nagisa and Fef--”

“Hey, I could go dowwn there any time I wwanted.” He straightened his back and extended his legs in front of him as though he were about to move to the water’s edge. “I havve a blanket invvitation on account a bein moirailed to Feferi,” he said, loading the emphasis into the second syllable to make it clear that Rei was not to use the apparent nickname again, “not that there’s any reason I should be explainin that to you. I’m simply choosin to let her havve a little bit a time by herself dowwn there because she asked me to.” His speech got quicker and more defensive as he spoke and Rei could tell he touched a nerve. 

“Be that as it may, your relationship with Feferi has nothing to do with how I feel about Nagisa.”

“But you do feel somethin wwhich means I’m right an you’re wwrong.” Rei saw the creature’s shoulders move in a shrug then it did stand, the fabric of its clothes rustling softly. He stood beside it. “If you’re wwillin to take a bit a advvice an you should be considerin wwe just established my rightness in this situation, you need to say somethin.” His cape billowed a little as he walked forward. “Even if it’s just makin it official in a pale sense, you’re not doin yourself any kind a favvor by wwaiting.”

“There is nothing to make official! I can’t wait for something that’s not going to happen!” Rei threw his hands up as he followed, blatantly ignoring the twist in his gut when he saw Nagisa with one arm thrown around the other creature in the water.

“Rei-chan! You should’ve come swimming! Feferi-sama can breathe underwater.” His voice was soft with awe. Rei found himself clenching his hands at his sides.

“That’s quite all right. I was playing host to, uh…”

“Eridan, not that you evver asked. Some host.” The creature slipped into the water, his clothes becoming like a second skin. Even the cape seemed to be more hydrodynamic than it initially appeared.

“Eridan, be nice!” Feferi splashed a handful of water into Eridan’s face but the other just sulked a little and submerged. “We have to be going but I promised Nagisa I would shell your fronds that you’re all right.”

“Oh! Thank you.” He wasn’t sure what else to say so he just watched as Nagisa pushed away from the creature a little.

“Take care, Feferi-sama!” Nagisa rose up backwards out of the water so he could sit on the edge and wave to her as she departed.

“Bye Nagisa-kun. It was nice to meet you, Rei-chaaaaaaaaaaaan!” Rei could only stammer in surprise at the familiarity of her speech as she submerged as well and the two creatures swam off, improbably fast and beautiful.

“I hope you were nicer to Eridan than you usually are to strangers, Rei-chan,” Nagisa chirped, kicking his feet in the water. 

“He wasn’t exactly nice to me. We can’t all get along as well as you and Feferi.” He could hear the note of petulance in his own voice and winced but it was too late. Nagisa was on his feet and peering at his face. Rei waited for the teasing or playful scolding, keeping his eyes aimed somewhere around Nagisa’s knees, but it never came. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because Rei-chan never says that about Mako-chan or Haru-chan and I wonder what’s made you so jealous.”

“I am not jealous!”

“It’s OK. I would be jealous if you were very nice to Eridan considering how you were with me at first. It took me a long time to get you to be as nice to me as you are.” Rei finally looked up when he felt Nagisa’s forehead against his shoulder.

“Nice to you? I’m--”  
“I know, but that’s just Rei-chan’s way. If there’s no theory for it it must be impossible, yeah?” The warmth from his forehead spread as he turned his head, leaning his whole cheek against Rei.

“W-well, that would be the logical thing. Theory is the foundation for--”

“So what is your theory about gray people who can breathe underwater?” When he looked down Rei saw a pair of deep pink eyes looking back from under the damp fringe of Nagisa’s hair, equal parts innocently inquiring and challenging because they both knew there was no theory for that.

“I haven’t had any time to do any research on this, Nagisa, so you’re not going to prove anything by putting me on the spot like this.” He stiffened his shoulders then immediately regretted it as the space that created at his side was apparently the perfect opening for Nagisa to slide his arms around his waist. “Nagisa!? What are you doing?”

“Just because you don’t have a theory about something, doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen. Also, Rei-chan should learn to keep his voice down.” Rei froze for a moment as Nagisa pressed against him, not forcing anything but definitely giving the most unrelenting cuddle Rei had ever gotten from another person.

“I--” Rei sighed and carefully lifted one arm, circling it around Nagisa. “You heard that?”

“Uh huh! But it’s OK because I think Rei-chan will find it much nicer with someone else inside his cocoon.”

“Cocoons aren’t intended to hold multiple organisms. They’re just for the development of a single individual.”

“Ohhhhh.” Nagisa made no attempt to hide that he actually knew that before Rei said anything. “I guess that just means you’ll have to break out of it altogether, huh? And maybe I can help some?”

Rei tightened his arm just a little. “Maybe.” His voice was as deadpan as he could make it when his heart was pounding the way it was.

“YATTA! I know just how to celebrate, too!” 

Before he had a chance to ask what Nagisa was planning, or what was even worth celebrating, Rei felt the arms around his middle tighten as Nagisa heaved both of them down into the water.

Hazuki Nagisa was not a person to be trusted.


End file.
